Various applications allow users to interact with a computer system of an organization over the Internet or other public network. Such applications are often referred to as extranet applications. For example, extranet applications enable users to carry out financial transactions with organizations such as banks or insurance companies and make purchases using electronic commerce (e-commerce) web-sites. Employees can access organization data remotely over the Internet, and physicians can access medical records maintained by health institution database systems.
Communication security is often a prime consideration in the design and deployment of extranet applications, especially since extranet communication traffic traverses a public network and since user computers are often not under the control of the organization. Several methods and systems for increasing the security of extranet communication are known in the art. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0029276, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes methods and systems for enabling a network connection between first and second processors using at least one additional processor separate from the first and second processors. As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,210,169, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes an originator device, which allows for a unique pass-phrase to be communicated to a service system. The originator device has a fixed token, in which a unique platform identifier is recorded, and a processor that generates a representation of the platform configuration. The representation is communicated to a registry service as a unique, platform-specific pass-phrase associated with the originator.
Some security methods and systems attempt to verify the integrity of the operating environment of a server or user computer, i.e., verify that the operating environment has not been corrupted or tampered with. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2005/0221766, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method and apparatus for performing dynamic attestation for a communication system. Several methods for measuring and reporting the integrity of a system, such as a wireless device, are described. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2005/0132031, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system and method for providing attestation and/or integrity of a server execution environment. One or more parts of the server environment are selected for measurement. The selected parts are measured, and the measurements result in a unique fingerprint for each selected part. The unique fingerprints are aggregated by an aggregation function to create an aggregated value, which is determinative of running programs in the server environment. A measurement parameter may include the unique fingerprints, the aggregated value or a base system value and may be sent over a network interface to indicate the server environment status or state.